Safiya Noble Explained

Safiya Noble
Known For:Algorithms of Oppression
Alma Mater:California State University, Fresno
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Workplaces:University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of California, Los Angeles
University of Southern California
Thesis Title:Searching for black girls: old traditions in new media
Thesis Url:http://hdl.handle.net/2142/42315
Thesis Year:2012
Awards:MacArthur Fellow
Website:https://safiyaunoble.com/

Safiya Umoja Noble is the David O. Sears Presidential Endowed Chair of Social Sciences and Professor of Gender Studies, African American Studies, and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the director of the UCLA Center on Race & Digital Justice and co-director of the Minderoo Initiative on Tech & Power at the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry (C2i2). She serves as interim director of the UCLA DataX Initiative, leading work in critical data studies.

Noble is the author of a bestselling book on racist and sexist algorithmic harm in commercial search engines, entitled Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism (New York University Press), which has been widely-reviewed in scholarly and popular publications. In 2021, she was recognized as a MacArthur Fellow for her groundbreaking work on algorithmic bias.

She is a board member of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, which serves those vulnerable to online harassment, and provides expertise to a number of civil and human rights organizations. She is a research associate at the Oxford Internet Institute, where she is a chartering member of the International Panel on the Information Environment. In 2022, she was recognized as the inaugural NAACP-Archewell Digital Civil Rights Award recipient.

She was appointed a commissioner to the University of Oxford Commission on AI and Good Governance in 2020.[1] In 2020 she was nominated to the Global Future Council on Artificial Intelligence for Humanity at the World Economic Forum.[2]

Early life and education

Noble grew up in Fresno, California. She went on to study sociology at California State University, Fresno with a focus on African American studies and ethnic studies.[3] While at Fresno State, Noble was involved with the "campus political scene," protesting against apartheid and campaigning for racial equality and gender equality.[4] She was a member of the Associated Students, Inc. and the California State Student Association.[5] After she graduated, Noble worked for more than a decade in multicultural marketing, advertising, and public relations.[6]

Noble attended the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for graduate studies where she earned a master's degree and Ph.D. in library and information science.[7] Her 2012 dissertation, Searching for black girls: old traditions in new media, considered how gender and race manifest on technology platforms.[8]

Career

Noble was appointed assistant professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the Department of African-American Studies, the Department of Media and Cinema Studies, and the Institute for Communication Research. Noble joined the University of California, Los Angeles's Department of Information Studies in 2014.[9] She was awarded the University of California, Los Angeles Early Career Award in 2016.[10] [11] The same year she was appointed a Hellman Fellow.[12] Noble received academic tenure at UCLA and was promoted to associate professor in 2018.[13]

Noble joined the University of Southern California from 2017 to 2019 as a visiting assistant professor.[14] At USC, she focused on the politics and human and civil rights concerns of digital media platforms, which includes the integration of these issues in STEM education.[15]

On 25 September 2020, Noble was named as one of the 25 members of the Real Facebook Oversight Board, an independent monitoring group for Facebook.[16] In October 2020, she was featured in conversation with Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex on the harms of technology, and her book Algorithms of Oppression was cited by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex for outlining how "the digital space really shapes our thinking about race."[17] [18]

Noble was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2021.[19]

Research

Noble's academic research focuses on the Internet and its impact on society. Her work is both sociological and interdisciplinary, marking the ways that digital media intersects with issues of race, gender, culture, power, and technology. Her expertise on issues of algorithmic discrimination and technology bias has been covered by Rolling Stone,[20] The Guardian, BBC, CNN International,[21] USA Today,[22] Wired,[23] Full Frontal with Samantha Bee,[24] and The New York Times.[25] Her popular writing includes critiques on the loss of public goods to Big Tech companies.[26]

Her research also focuses on gender, technology, and culture, and how they influence the design and use of the internet.[27] Her work has appeared in academic publications and popular media outlets including Time[28] and Bitch.[29] Noble co-edited the books Emotions, Technology & Design and The Intersectional Internet: Race, Sex, Culture and Class Online.[30] [31] She is the co-editor of the "Commentary & Criticism" section of the journal Feminist Media Studies. She is a member of several academic journal and advisory boards including for Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education, and the Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies.

Algorithms of Oppression

Noble's first book, Algorithms of Oppression, was published by NYU Press in 2018 and has been reviewed in journals such as the Los Angeles Review of Books and was featured in the New York Public Library 2018 Best Books for Adults.[32] [33] [34] It considers how bias against people of color is embedded into supposedly neutral search engines. It explores how racism, especially Anti-Black racism, is generated, maintained, and reproduced by the internet.[35] In it, Noble is concerned with looking at the ways the Black community is commercialized by technology companies. She focuses on companies like Google and Facebook and how their algorithms "black-box" information; for example, when a search term is entered, it is unclear how results for the search are derived. Her work aims to change the perceptions of marginalized people in technology.[36] She blogged about "Digital Infrastructures of Race and Gender" for the Fotomuseum's online platform.[37] She has also given talks and interviews about Algorithms of Oppression.[38] [39] [40] [41]

Select publications

Edited volumes

References

  1. Web site: 28 July 2020 . New Commission to Address AI and Good Governance in Public Policy . 2024-09-24 . Oxford Internet Institute . en-GB.
  2. Web site: Global Future Council on Artificial Intelligence for Humanity . https://web.archive.org/web/20201009210242/https://www.weforum.org/communities/gfc-on-artificial-intelligence-for-humanity/ . 9 October 2020 . World Economic Forum.
  3. Web site: Safiya U. Noble . https://web.archive.org/web/20190207020110/https://annenberg.usc.edu/faculty/communication/safiya-u-noble . 7 February 2019 . 6 February 2019 . USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism . en.
  4. News: Munro . Donald . 19 April 2018 . When Google gets it wrong: Safiya Noble exposes how search engines reinforce racism . 24 September 2024 . The Munro Review.
  5. News: Kaur . Bineet . 23 April 2018 . Is Google's algorithm racially biased? This Fresno State alumna thinks so . 6 February 2019 . The Collegian.
  6. Web site: Spotlight on Safiya Umoja Noble . https://web.archive.org/web/20190207015833/https://www.afro.illinois.edu/people/spotlight/safiya/ . 7 February 2019 . 6 February 2019 . Department of African-American Studies University of Illinois .
  7. Web site: McDonald . John . 25 October 2018 . Safiya Umoja Noble Receives Top Honor from Fresno State . https://web.archive.org/web/20190207020429/https://ampersand.gseis.ucla.edu/safiya-umoja-noble-receives-top-honor-from-fresno-state/ . 7 February 2019 . 6 February 2019 . UCLA GSE&IS Ampersand.
  8. Noble . Safiya Umoja . Searching for black girls: old traditions in new media . December 2012 . PhD . University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign .
  9. Web site: Harmon . Joanie . 15 July 2014 . Safiya U. Noble: Scholar of Critical Digital Media Studies Joins IS Faculty . https://web.archive.org/web/20181014053202/https://ampersand.gseis.ucla.edu/safiya-u-noble-scholar-of-critical-digital-media-studies-joins-is-faculty/ . 14 October 2018 . 6 February 2019 . UCLA GSE&IS Ampersand.
  10. Web site: Awards . https://web.archive.org/web/20190207020635/https://is.gseis.ucla.edu/about-is/awards/ . 7 February 2019 . 6 February 2019 . UCLA GSEIS Information Studies.
  11. Web site: Hudson . Marc . 9 May 2018 . Generosity and conviviality in the age of algorithmic oppression: #Manchester #odmnoble . 2024-09-24 . marchudson.net.
  12. Web site: Safiya Noble . 2024-09-24 . Stanford HAI . en.
  13. Web site: Noble . Safiya Umoja . January 2019 . SAFIYA UMOJA NOBLE, Ph.D. . https://web.archive.org/web/20220315164904/https://safiyaunoble.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/CV_SafiyaUNoble_Winter2019-1.pdf . 15 March 2022 . 15 March 2019 . Safiya U. Noble.
  14. News: Lunch Keynote with Dr. Safiya Umoja Noble: Social Justice in LIS, Finding the Imperative to Act . 31 May 2018 . 2017 MLA Annual Conference.
  15. Web site: Safiya Noble (University of Southern California) . 24 September 2024 . UCSD Design Lab . en-US.
  16. Web site: Solon . Olivia . 25 September 2020 . While Facebook works to create an oversight board, industry experts formed their own . 24 September 2024 . NBC News.
  17. Dockterman . Eliana . 20 October 2020 . Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Discuss Misinformation With Silicon Valley's Biggest Critics . 24 September 2024 . TIME.
  18. Web site: Royston . Jack . 27 August 2020 . Meghan Markle Praises Prince Harry as Feminist Father to Baby Archie . 20 November 2020 . Newsweek . en.
  19. Web site: Stevens . Matt . Schuessler . Jennifer . 28 September 2021 . MacArthur Foundation Announces 2021 'Genius' Grant Winners . 28 September 2021 . The New York Times.
  20. Web site: O'Neil . Lorena . 12 August 2023 . These Women Tried to Warn Us About AI . 24 September 2024 . Rolling Stone . en-US.
  21. Should you delete Facebook in Protest? . 27 March 2018 . Video . 24 September 2024 . YouTube.
  22. News: Noble . Safiya U. . Roberts . Sarah T. . 12 November 2016 . Targeting race in ads is nothing new, but the stakes are high . 24 September 2024 . USA Today.
  23. News: Noble . Safiya Umoja . 4 March 2018 . Social Inequality Will Not Be Solved By an App . 24 September 2024 . Wired . en-US . 1059-1028.
  24. Web site: Brown . Tracy . 21 March 2019 . Sasheer Zamata’s ‘Full Frontal’ segment confronts racial bias in technology . 24 September 2024 . Los Angeles Times . en-US.
  25. News: Manjoo . Farhad . 30 August 2018 . Here’s the Conversation We Really Need to Have About Bias at Google . 24 September 2024 . The New York Times.
  26. Noble . Safiya . 1 July 2020 . The Loss Of Public Goods To Big Tech . Noema . en-US.
  27. Web site: 28 October 2018 . Two New Senior Research Fellows to Join the Oxford Internet Institute . https://web.archive.org/web/20190207020739/https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/blog/two-new-senior-research-fellows-to-join-the-oxford-internet-institute/ . 7 February 2019 . 6 February 2019 . Oxford Internet Institute.
  28. Noble . Safiya . Google Has a Striking History of Bias Against Black Girls . Time . 26 March 2018 . 6 February 2019 . en.
  29. Spring 2012 . The Frontier Issue . Bitch Media . en . 54 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190207020157/https://www.bitchmedia.org/issue/54 . 7 February 2019 . 6 February 2019.
  30. Book: The intersectional Internet: race, sex, class and culture online . Peter Lang . 2016 . 9781433130007 . Noble . Safiya Umoja . New York . 918150002 . Tynes . Brendesha M..
  31. Book: Emotions, Technology, and Design . 28 December 2015 . Academic Press . 9780128018392 . Tettegah . Sharon . Noble . Safiya.
  32. Web site: NYPL 2018 Best Books for Adults . https://web.archive.org/web/20230324121739/https://www.nypl.org/bestbooksadults2018 . 24 March 2023 . New York Public Library.
  33. Web site: 16 February 2018 . In 'Algorithms of Oppression,' Safiya Noble finds old stereotypes persist in new media . 31 May 2018 . USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
  34. Web site: Algorithms of Oppression How Search Engines Reinforce Racism . 31 May 2018 . NYU Press.
  35. News: 15 May 2018 . Algorithms of Oppression . 24 September 2024 . Data & Society.
  36. Book: Noble, Safiya Umoja . Algorithms of Oppression: How search engines reinforce racism . 2018 . New York University Press . 978-1-4798-4994-9 .
  37. Web site: Noble . Safiya Umoja . Digital Infrastructures of Race and Gender . 24 September 2024 . Fotomuseum Winterthur.
  38. Web site: Safiya U. Noble, Ph.D. . https://web.archive.org/web/20181014091421/https://stratelligence.net/employees/safiya-u-noble/ . 14 October 2018 . Stratelligence.
  39. News: Noble . Safiya . 12 August 2017 . Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism . 31 May 2018 . Open Transcripts.
  40. Web site: Digital Futures – Safiya Umoja Noble . 31 May 2018 . Concordia University.
  41. Web site: Dickey . Megan Rose . 27 January 2018 . CTRL+T podcast: Artificial intelligence may become a human rights issue . 31 May 2018 . TechCrunch.

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